Natural Materials (311)

The Crestone Energy Fair, celebrating its 35th year, is one of the longest-running sustainability fairs in the nation. The focus of the gathering is on “sharing innovative, sustainable, and regenerative ideas in construction, lifestyle, and community.” This free event, which will take place September 14th and 15th, features presentations, demonstrations, home tours, and vendors showcasing alternative building methods and materials, such as straw bales, Earthships, cordwood, and Hempcrete. Attendees will also learn about different electricity sources. In addition, the fair contains a Wellness Village and an Artisan Marketplace that will host music and yoga. 

Rooting Forward

This year’s theme is “Rooting Forward,” which is about “prioritizing our commitment to finding common ground, reaching across the aisle, and growing strong roots in order to move forward as a grounded, unified collective.”

Shelter Publications founder Lloyd Kahn will be one of the headline speakers at the fair. His presentation will cover what he’s learned over the years, including his experience editing the Whole Earth Catalog shelter section, interviewing and documenting builders, and the effect of the 1960s countercultural revolution on his life and work. 

Crestone Town

In a recent interview with Lloyd, he talked about Crestone as a town. 

“Crestone is a pretty cool town in Colorado where a lot of young people have gone. And that was the case in Bolinas in the 1970s. And there are these unique small towns in different states like Patagonia in Arizona or, you know, just a town that’s got something special and, often, the artists will be the first ones to discover it, and then more and more people do.”

Here is the official schedule of events with information on Lloyd’s talk on the Main Stage, scheduled for Saturday at 4:15 p.m. Crestone has a fantastic YouTube page with live broadcasts during the fair, as well as archives of past events. It’s worth checking out.

Visit crestoneenergyfair.org for all the details.

In 2017, the Millers snagged a 10-acre gem on Buchanan Lake in Minnesota, complete with a trio of old-school duck-hunting cabins that had seen better days. Legend has it, even an NFL big shot used to hunt here. Right before sealing the deal, the previous owners were close to tearing the cabins down. But the Millers saw some rustic gold in that wood and decided to dismantle the structures instead, aiming to breathe new life into the aged siding.

Each cabin told its own story. One was the crash pad, still packed with a dozen mattresses—a mash-up of bunk and twin beds in one room, plus a couple of full-size beds in the next. The roof had given up on doing its job here, and most of the windows were a testament to better times gone by. Another cabin was all about the grub; its kitchen setup was surprisingly intact with a fridge, stove, and sink. And then there was the storage shack, standing firm on a concrete foundation, while its siblings squatted on wooden floors that were quickly deteriorating—think rotted planks! 

But here’s where it gets good. The Millers managed to rescue about 60% of that wood, trimming off the rough edges (literally) to weave it into their new digs inside a steel shed—you know, the steel shed that people use for a house—a “shouse.” They power-washed each plank to its former glory, skipped the sanding to keep that rugged charm, and sealed each with a layer of clear varnish. They went all in on a cozy, lived-in vibe.

Installing the siding was a bit like putting together a giant puzzle—using the tongue and groove style on stud walls, pinned down with finishing nails. Some of the boards were stripped in half for the trim to keep up the rustic look. The roofing boards got a new lease on life too. They were cleaned up, painted, and lined up for a shiplap statement wall. All in all, it took about a week of prep and DIY magic to get everything up and looking sharp.

While many of our books feature recycled materials, Meg Simonds, featured in Small Homes, explains it best: “Building with recycled wood is a slow and arduous affair, from finding it to pulling the last nail. It is a lot of work and rarely is it delivered. The payoff is twofold. The quality of older wood generally surpasses that of new, and its deep, rich beauty only comes with age. For us, more importantly, [we love] getting to have a truly deep relationship with the wood. All this wood once had a home, an ancient forest, the lungs of the Earth; little of this remains. The best we can do now is to have a deep respect for what was and what is. We approached building our home with this in mind.” (pg. 126-127)

• From our book Small Homes: The Right Size.

• From @shelterpub’s Instagram post
• From our book Tiny Homes

In 2017, wildfires swept through Ojai, California causing a tremendous amount of destruction. Ryan watched as the eerie glow on the horizon turned into a wall of flames racing towards his parked tiny house. It was about 4am when he hitched up his home to his truck and managed to move it to safety moments before the property was engulfed in flames. Thankfully, his tiny home was safe but the property it was parked on was completely torched, the property owners tragically loosing their home.

It was that event which prompted him to build a second tiny house. Firstly, he wanted to build cheaper, so he didn’t have quite as much capital invested in his home on wheels and secondly so that it could be smaller, easier to find a parking space for and even more simple to move should the fires ever sweep through the area again…

• From www.livingbiginatinyhouse.com/…

We have just received early copies from the printer of Driftwood Shacks: Anonymous Architecture Along the California Coast. With an additional 30 pages, due to be released in March 2019. Photo by @lloyd.kahn

• From @shelterpub’s Instagram post

…I have worked as a forester since the mid-1970s and have lived in places that had specialized structures with limited functions, a cookhouse for cooking and eating, a bathhouse for showers and clothes washing, and a smaller structure (cabin or tent frame) to sleep in. Not much of a stretch to think I could do that again. I always wanted a large outside space which would stay dry. So I ended up with a 16´ × 16´ covered deck in front of the cabin. This had an added advantage because it gave me a large, dry, flat building area. Since it does rain a bit around here, that was a huge plus.

The cabin’s concept was to build modular log walls, and then assemble them in a post-and-beam framework. The log walls use ¾˝ thick, 3˝ wide plywood splines to attach them to the posts. The modules are built on a jig, and are then either stored somewhere until it is time to build or are then rebuilt on the foundation.

I’m just a retro-grouch at heart. Old school, wood and steel, no electricity, and a bit of skill beats power tools any day. I like my electric hand planers for smoothing wall timbers, love my chainsaw for cutting the big stuff — but for a simple bevel on a board (or 70 boards), I like the sound of a quiet hand plane that is older than my grandkids, older than my kids, older than me, maybe older than my father, and just like the ones my grand­father used to use.
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My home, which I built in 
2003–04, is a hybrid design. 
The north, east, and west wall are straw bale, while the south wall is adobe and glass. The upper story is framed with 2˝ × 8˝ rough-sawn local Ponderosa Pine, furred out to about 9½˝ to accommodate a heavy coat of cellulose insulation, which also fills the roof cavity. Downstairs, there are earthen plasters inside and outside, while upstairs is sheathed in local, rough-sawn pine board and batten.

Drywall walls upstairs are finished in earthen plasters, which ties the two levels together. A central woodstove heats the home, which is off the grid. I tried to use materials mostly from my county in southwest Colorado. Ceilings are tongue-and-groove aspen sawn in a mill six miles away. The frame is local Ponderosa pine, including a third of them milled from my property. I did my own bathroom and kitchen ­cabinetry. Downstairs floors are earthen (two thirds) and tile (one third). There are lots of porches for protection of my earthen walls during a Colorado winter. One unique feature is a 10-inch lizard (painted blue) that runs up the staircase on an interior adobe wall. I named her Noelle when I finished shaping her one Christmas afternoon. I share the house with my wife Shaine, kids Rosie and Fielder, and dog Ella…

• From our book Small Homes: The Right Size.